


The Witness

by Lacylu42



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-08
Updated: 2014-09-08
Packaged: 2018-02-16 15:37:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2275194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacylu42/pseuds/Lacylu42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: "Wait… we're married?" from oshiroryuu for the churchontime Dr. Who Weddingfest.</p>
<p>The Doctor had to do *something* to save them from blowing up, after all. It's just his bad luck that there was a witness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Witness

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers (if applicable): None, except perhaps for "The Parting of the Ways"?
> 
>  
> 
> Author's Notes: Oh god. This made me so happy to write, it should be illegal. I wrote it in TWO DAYS. Probably includes every fandom cliché there is (as I haven't read a lot of Who-fic) but I don't care. Thank you for letting me indulge. :D Thanks to polyspaston for the Brit Pick.
> 
> Originally written in April, 2008

> While no complete records of the Gallifrean ceremony of matrimony have been found, accounts that have survived describe a ceremony through which two Time Lords are bonded physically, spiritually, and emotionally through the power of the symbiotic species that inhabit the machines of the Time Lords. It is said to be a ritual of great dignity, solemnity, and quiet beauty through which the three entities become, metaphorically, one. (See page 1,247–1,459 inclusive for further discussion of the symbiotic relationship between Time Lords and their TARDISes.)  
>  _Excerpt from Lords of Time: A Compendium of Knowledge and Hypothesis about the Noble Race of the Time Lords by Grammanicus Astropologica_

  
~*~

  
A terrible explosion rocked the TARDIS so that its inhabitants nearly lost their feet.

“Hold that one — are you holding that one down?”

“I’m holding it down!”

“OK, and then we just — woah!” The console between them sparked wildly. The Rose girl squealed and tried to step back while still holding that one down. “Enough of that!" the Doctor said, fanning wildly with his free hand. He turned a few more dials, yanked on a lever with his left hand, and threw his foot up onto the console just barely reaching a switch on the far side. "Right! Now! Just toggle that bit and —" He looked up, his eyes wide and wild. "Rose! Give me your hand!”

They flailed out towards one another, fingers reaching, grasping, finding purchase, clinging, intertwining over the console of the TARDIS. They looked up and met one another's eyes. A strange stillness came over them, even as the world seemed to be falling to pieces all around. There was an enormous flash of pure light and then, over the din of the alarms, the bangs and the crashes, there was an ethereal sort of sigh.

The light faded, the alarms quieted, the terrifying shaking subsided. The Time Lord and his companion stood still, clutching one another tightly until they were sure it was all over. Perhaps even a moment longer.

"Ha HA!" the Doctor cried. He pulled the Rose girl to him, folding her into an embrace, and kissed the top of her head as she giggled with nervous relief. "Told you it would be alright."

"Splendid," Grammanicus breathed from where he sat, splayed on the TARDIS floor.

~*~

  
It wasn't until later, when the human child had gone off to "get a quick a kip" (human grammar was fascinating — he must remember that as a possible subject for his next book), that he decided to say anything about it. The Doctor was staring intently at a little screen in the console.

"I must say," Grammanicus began, "I'm dreadfully honored—"

"What's that?" the Doctor interrupted, glancing up from his screen.

"I said, I'm terribly honored to have been allowed—"

"Oh, don't mention it! Planet blowing up and all that. What was I going to do, leave you there?"

Grammanicus blinked and smiled. He took off the round black hat he wore as a scholar of his world (which was now in several billion radioactive pieces hurtling across the emptiness of space) and bowed his bald yellow head. "Yes," he said. "I am very grateful to be rescued. And by a Time Lord! You've no idea the honor and pleasure it is to meet one of your esteemed race after all these years of study. My critics will never again be able to claim that the Time Lords are a myth!"

"Yes, well…" the Doctor said. His expression darkened and he turned his attention back to the flickering screen.

"And I just wanted to say—"

"Hmmm?" The Doctor was beginning to sound a trifle impatient. He didn't even look up from the screen. Grammanicus twiddled his hat nervously in his hands. It wouldn't do at all to offend a Time Lord.

"It was an honor beyond my wildest dreams to be a witness to the Gallifrean ceremony of matrimony. I have written extensively about the various social ceremonies of your race, but to actually bear witness to—"

"What." Apparently Grammanicus had the Time Lord's full attention now. He was staring, his eyes wide and focused. "What did you say?"

"I–I–" Grammanicus stammered, shocked by the Doctor's reaction. "I didn't mean any offense."

The Doctor took off his spectacles and strode across the control room, his long legs making short work of the space. Grammanicus took a step back and bumped into a pillar as the Doctor rounded on him.

"What makes you think that was a marriage ceremony?" the Doctor demanded.

Grammanicus smoothed his waistcoat. He was quite used to having to defend his theories. "Please, Doctor. I have studied the Time Lords quite extensively."

"Been to a lot of weddings on Gallifrey, have you?"

"No, not as such, but—"

"You just told me I'm the only Time Lord you've ever met! So why would you think—"

"You did open the heart of the TARDIS," Grammanicus interjected. The Doctor took a step back.

"Well. Yes. But it was necessary! Your bloody planet exploded and started spitting out radioactive isotopes. She was wounded! Bleeding power, and—"

"And you joined with them both, didn't you? With your mind? The three entities become one."

The Doctor looked away. "Only way to safely dissipate the power," he said, but he no longer seemed to be speaking to Grammanicus. "I couldn't do it alone." He began to pace the length of the control room.

Grammanicus replaced his hat upon his head and smiled a trifle smugly. "Obviously, in a traditional ceremony, there is a great deal more pomp. Words are spoken, tokens exchanged, et cetera, but the most important portion of the ceremony was maintained." The Doctor stopped and looked at him, and Grammanicus wondered if he had spoken out of turn. Perhaps he shouldn't have said anything at all.

The Doctor turned away at last, back to his console, his flickering screen, and Grammanicus sat on the floor in a corner, not wanting to get in the way, not wanting to bother the great Time Lord any more than he obviously already had.

~*~

  
"Oi! Anybody hungry?"

Grammanicus looked up as the human girl bounced into the control room again, full of renewed energy. She was backwards, strange little thing, with her yellow hair instead of skin, and ridiculously tall, but she reminded him of one of his daughters. He wondered if he would ever see them again.

"I'm alright," the Doctor said quickly, positioning himself between Grammanicus and the girl. "But why don't you knock something up for our guest here? The TARDIS needs a few more hours to recover. Least we can do is give him a meal before we send him on his way." His manner was cheerful, toothy grin, hands in pockets, shrugged shoulders. But it didn't reach his eyes.

"Mister Domestic!" The Rose girl cocked her head to look at him inquisitively. "Yeah," she said at last. "Alright. But no cracks about my cooking!" She flashed Grammanicus a bright smile before heading back into the bowels of the TARDIS.

Before Grammanicus could even say a word of thanks, however, the Doctor turned on him. "You mustn't say anything to her," he hissed.

"What?"

"You can't tell her what you know. That we're…" he bobbed his head back and forth, looking uncomfortable, "you know. Because we're not. Not really."

"You don't intend to tell her?" Grammanicus asked, confused.

"No!" the Doctor exclaimed. "No. Because we're not — I mean, it was an emergency situation! I didn't do it because… Not that I wouldn't… but she's…" He suddenly looked very sad for a moment. "She's only 19 years old. 19 of her years, which aren't even as long as Gallifrean years, and I'm nine hundred and three."

"That is a bit of an age difference," Grammanicus admitted.

"That's not the point," the Doctor insisted. "The point is that it wasn't a real — we're not really married because there wasn't any of the — what did you call it? — the pomp. Absolutely no pomp! And it's certainly not legal. I mean, Gallifrey doesn't even exist any more! And so there's no point in telling her. Not really. I mean, it's not even worth it."

Grammanicus glanced pointedly over the Doctor's shoulder to where the Rose girl was standing, looking somewhat dumbstruck, in the doorway. Slowly, the Doctor followed Grammanicus' gaze.

Before that moment, Grammanicus would never have theorized that a being other than a Time Lord could feel what it was like for time to stop, but in that long, silent moment, it felt as if it did.

"Rose," the Doctor began, but she held up a hand.

"Wait…" she said. "We're married?"

~*~

  
"And you weren't even going to tell me?" the Rose girl shouted. She slammed a metal pitcher of sorts on to the heat source. Grammanicus and the Doctor were sitting on stools at a long metal counter in the galley while Rose shouted and threw things about, ostensibly "making tea." Grammanicus swung his short legs from his seat nervously.

"It didn't seem—"

"Important? We're MARRIED!" Rose shouted at the Time Lord. She threw open a cupboard and reached inside. "And WHY are all your mugs chipped?" She slammed the mug down onto the counter. "Bloody lord of time and you don't even have any proper mugs!"

The Doctor opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but then decided against it.

Rose leaned heavily on the counter. "Oh my god," she said leaning over, her hair falling in a yellow curtain about her face. "My mum's going to kill me." She pointed at the Doctor. "She's going to kill you first, mind."

"We are NOT telling Jackie."

Rose shot him a look that would have withered weaker men.

"There's nothing to tell!" the Doctor. "We're not married. It was not a marriage, it was an emergency. Look, did you say 'I do?'"

"No, but—"

"Then we're not married. If you didn't say it, you didn't do it."

Rose glared at him. "You got that from _The Princess Bride_." The Doctor frowned, as if trying to remember.

Rose turned to face Grammanicus. "Was it a marriage ceremony or not?" she asked.

"Who're you gonna believe—"

Rose held up a hand. "I am not speaking to you!"

The Doctor fell silent, a miserable look on his face.

Grammanicus looked from the Rose girl to the Time Lord and back again.

"Was it," Rose repeated, "a proper marriage ceremony?"

"It was," Grammanicus answered at last.

The Doctor put his head in his hands. Rose's expression was inscrutable.

"However, a true marriage has an emotional component," Grammanicus continued gently. "In the Gallifrean ceremony, a psychic and emotional bond is established between the participants." He smiled at them kindly. "Without love, my dear friends, it could be called a marriage, but not truly a wedding."

Strangely, the look his hosts shared was not exactly the one of relief he had expected.

~*~

  
The Rose girl retreated to her cabin while the Doctor went back to his control room. Grammanicus followed at a respectful distance.

The Doctor looked up as Grammanicus entered. "Another hour or so," he said. "Then we'll have you on your way. I've found a nice space station for you. You can try to find your family from there."

"You are the very picture of generosity, Doctor." Grammanicus said. "If I might ask…" The Doctor's expression neither invited nor dissuaded. "The Rose girl, she is a Human. I am not entirely familiar with the species but — correct me if I'm wrong…" The Doctor watched him over the tops of his spectacles. "I did not believe a human would survive being exposed to the heart of a TARDIS."

The Doctor stared off at something only he could see for a moment before coming back to himself. "Rose is… special." He said at last. "She and the TARDIS found each other a while ago."

"It did not kill her?"

"It nearly killed us both," The Doctor said. "But now — she doesn't remember any of it, but the TARDIS gets inside your head."

Grammanicus nodded, but was still puzzled. "As you say. But even so. You couldn't have known that she would be safe—"

"She would have died either way," the Doctor spat. Grammanicus bowed his head. "I had to do something! At least that way she had a chance, and…"

Grammanicus did not press the Time Lord to finish his thought.

~*~

  
Grammanicus must have succumbed to the exhaustion of the day's events and dozed off in his seat in the control room, for he was awakened by the sound of low voices.

"All I'm saying is you could have asked me, told me what you were planning!"

"Oh, right. 'Listen, Rose, we've got 30 seconds to live and I haven't time to explain, but I was wondering if you'd marry me.'"

"Well, you could've done! It wouldn't have killed you."

"It might!"

In the tense silence that followed, Grammanicus tried to turn his head, very slowly, opening his eyes just a slit. He could not see the Doctor or Rose in the control room; they must have gone out into the corridor. For privacy.

"I would've said yes."

"What?"

"For the record, I mean. I would've said yes."

"Rose…"

"What, Doctor? What are you going to say?"

Grammanicus strained to hear. The Doctor said nothing.

"That's what I thought."

~*~

  
"Thank you again for saving my life," Grammanicus said, bowing deeply first to the Doctor and then to Rose. "I am glad I lived if only to say that I have been in the presence of a Time Lord! Ridden in a TARDIS!"

"Yeah, well, don't go bragging too loudly," the Doctor said with a smirk. "Everybody'll want one."

"Goodbye, Miss Rose," Grammanicus said, grasping her fingers and pressing them to his forehead.

"Will you put me in your next book?" Rose asked with a smile.

"Oh, indubitably. Companion to a great Time Lord? You are a remarkable human indeed."

"Flatterer," Rose chided.

Grammanicus stepped out of the door of the TARDIS into the bustling noise of the space station and was momentarily disoriented. So many beings. How would he ever find his family again?

Grammanicus turned back for one last look. The Doctor was standing at the door of the TARDIS, but he was not looking out. Instead, he gazed back over his shoulder at the Rose girl, standing at one of the ship's consoles, gently stroking the side of a panel with her fingertips. The Doctor closed the door.

A strange sound filled Grammanicus' ears.The blue box that was the outer visage of the TARDIS shimmered momentarily, then vanished from reality. Grammanicus sighed. He had no doubt he would spend the remainder of his days looking around every corner for a glimpse of that blue box. The Doctor's TARDIS.

Rose's TARDIS.

~*~*~*~


End file.
